1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a human prohibitin, a gene coding for the same, an antibody against the human prohibitin and a gene analysis method wherein a part of the gene is used as a probe.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been known for a long time that the mutation of cell genes plays an important role in cancer. Recent advances in genetic engineering have made it possible to amplify specific DNAs and to analyze gene mutations in cancer cells and thus contributed to the remarkable development in the field of investigations of cancer.
Analysis and identification on oncogenes, which are thought to participate in the malignant transformation of cells and the abnormal proliferation of cancer cells are now in progress and the number of the oncogenes thus identified so far amounts to several multiples of ten. On the other hand, tumor suppressor genes having functions that operate against the functions shown by the oncogenes have been the focus of intense research interest in these several years. This is because it has been reported that fusion cells which are obtained by the fusion of cancer cells with normal cells would not show tumorigenic properties and would behave like normal ones, which suggests the existence of a gene capable of suppressing cancer in the normal cells.
Only about ten genes, including gene Rb of retinoblastoma [see Friend, S. H., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., U.S.A., 84, 9095 (1987)], gene p53 of colon cancer [see Lane, D. P., et al., Nature, 278, 261 (1979)] and gene WT of Wilms' tumor [see Call, K. M., et al., Cell, 60, 509 (1990)] have hitherto been proposed as candidates for tumor suppressor genes. In 1991, Nuell, M. J., et al. cloned a cDNA for a protein prohibitin having an antiproliferative activity from rat hepatocytes. Further, they reported that, when a synthetic mRNA of rat prohibitin was injected into fibroblasts and HeLa cells, it prevented the progress of the cell proliferation cycle into the S-stage and that the injection of a synthetic antisense oligonucleotide induced the progress into the S-stage [See Mol. Cell. Biol., 11, 1372 (1991)]. Thus, they suggested a possibility that it might be an antiproliferative factor.
However, a human prohibitin gene still remains wholly unknown and the clarification of the gene has been required for the clarification of the mechanism of the malignant transformation and proliferation of cells on the molecular level and, further, to conduct the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The present invention aims at providing a novel human prohibitin, a DNA coding for the same, and a reagent for gene analysis with the use of them.